How Did Your Child Start Skating

[IceDanceSk8er]

I'm curious know what inspires a parent to enroll their child in figure skating classes. Do parents choose figure skating because of their love of the sport? Because their child expresses an interest in learning how to skate? Or because the child/parent has a friend who is learning? How many parents have you actually met who enrolled their child in figure skating classes because they want them to be Olympic champions? Any comments?

[Elsy2]

I grew up in the Cleveland area, where we skated for fun. That's just how we spent our time. But it was on ponds, rivers, etc...sometimes at an ice arena as teens on dates.

I just enrolled my daughter for the fun of it. No ambitions whatsoever. I never dreamed we would be off on a 6 year journey of competition. But that has been a great experience too. I never dreamed of Olympics, but she might have. I think it's more likely she dreamed of Nationals.

[IceDanceSk8er]

Originally posted by Elsy2
I grew up in the Cleveland area, where we skated for fun. That's just how we spent our time. But it was on ponds, rivers, etc...sometimes at an ice arena as teens on dates.

I just enrolled my daughter for the fun of it. No ambitions whatsoever. I never dreamed we would be off on a 6 year journey of competition. But that has been a great experience too. I never dreamed of Olympics, but she might have. I think it's more likely she dreamed of Nationals.

Has your daughter competed at Nationals? My daughter started skating when she was 4 because her older sister skated and was a student teacher at the local ice rink. We've been on the same journey - it's definately been an interesting road trip!

[Elsy2]

No, daughter has not made it to Nationals, but plenty of her friends have. Unfortunately, she has sustained injuries to her back that has pretty much ended competitive skating. She is concentrating on passing tests now, and that is fine. We had a great time competing, and I'm sorry to have it all end. She competed Junior moves last local comp. just to stay in it.

[NickiT]

I had been skating a few years before I had my children so it seemed the natural thing to enrol them both onto the mums and toddlers class when the time came. They'd spent quite a lot of time sitting rinkside in their buggies so they were both quite eager to have a go for themselves. When each of them reached the age of 4, my coach took them for a 15 minute lesson each week and we built it up from there.

Nicki

[Candleonwater]

At the ripe old age of 3 my daughter had SO much energy I enrolled her in lessons to see if it would help get rid of it... nope. And the funniest part is, I put her into skating so she could start playing hockey... what I didn't realize is that I have a "girly-girl" who doesn't mind watching hockey, but thinks only boys should play it.

[Mrs Redboots]

My daughter didn't start until her school offered a course of lessons. Hooked her, and incidentally hooked us, too. But 14 was a bad age for her to start - she wasn't old enough for the adult competitions and was too old to compete with many of her peers. She had fun, though, and only gave up when she went to uni in a town with no rink.

[batikat]

I was the one who wanted to learn to skate in my family. When we finally moved to a town with a rink I decided I would learn but was too chicken to go on my own, so I persuaded my then 8 yr old daughter to come with me as I was worried about being a lone adult in a class of kids I didnt' know. In fact there were 4 or so adults in the class so it wasnt' too bad. However had I only known it the rink also had Tuesday morning adult classes which would have been great. Those classes tend to have only a handful of people in them - anything between 2- 5 usually, whereas the Saturday morning classes I went to had 20 kids and adults together. I was lucky to get half a minute of the coaches attention each session!

Anyway - not to be left out my son decided to join us later and whizzed through the learn to skate levels closely followed by his sister and was then invited to take private lessons. Things took off from there and the kids have competed Novice pairs at the British Championships (though they are not committed enough to practice seriously). I just competed at British Adult Nationals so we can all say we have been to British Championships.

And I only wanted to learn how to skate backwards and to stop!!!

[Dolly]

I don't know of any parents in my area who enrolled their child in figure skating classes because they want them to be Olymic champions. I enrolled my girls when they 5 years old so they would learn the proper way to skate. My son played hockey until he finished high school Living in Canada, it is just the thing to do with winter starting in November and lasting until March in my area. But, they were also involved in other activities. My kids are all excellent swimmers, (my son is a lifeguard and my older daughter is working on it.) The three of them had music lessons throughout school (my son plays piano and guitar; the girls piano, flute and clarient). And the girls both took dance lessons since the age of 4. Skating is just another activity for them. However, the youngest is still skating at the age of 14. She is a good swimmer, but her passion was definitely skating. She used to compete but doesn't any more. She is trying tests and is working on Gold Dances, Senior Silver freeskate and skills tests. She's also on the Junior Synchro. team and is a program assistant with the club's canskate program. She is also a cheerleader and takes ballet classes.

We live in an isolated area and it would be pointless to think of going to Nationals in figureskating. We don't have the calibre of coaches that would bring a skater to that level and there's not enough ice time. Hockey takes most of it. Skaters who do go to Nationals in my area train away at bigger training centers but represent their home club. They don't go to regular school, but skate part of the day. However, no one has ever competed higher than Junior (and that's in recent years.) Most do it just for fun and exercise.

[arena_gal]

Other than 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon there was no public ice time available unless you joined the skating club. So we did. Lessons were a bonus. Thought we'd do it for a year and then play hockey. Little did we know....

I can skate but have never had a lesson in my life. Backyard ponds and all that. I think that all children should learn how to skate, well enough to get around backwards if they need to.

[Bogie88]

My kids don't handle hot weather well, so after trying soccer and having to deal with horrible headaches every week we tried group classes through the city 2 years ago. My daughter liked it, my son thought it was ok, but we moved on to baseball and softball. The headaches came back for my son, so, desperate for a sport without sunshine and heat to keep my active boy entertained, I bought a pair of used hockey skates and a $10 pair of figure skates and took him to a new rink that had just opened by our home. My daughter was involved in volleyball and acting then and wasn't interested in skating anymore. My son took a spin around the rink in each of the pairs of skates, and decided he liked the figure skating ones better, so there we were.

Two years plus one day after that October afternoon, my son has earned himself a trip to Junior Nationals in AZ, all because of a fateful decision based upon a pair of cheap plastic skates from Ebay and a bad run of headaches!

[Elsy2]

Wow Bogie88.....off to Jr. Nationals after only two years! Amazing.

Just want to say I'm enjoying all these stories!

[kgl2]

We took out oldest to a hockey scrimmage and there was public skating afterwards. Once she tried it, she drove me crazy to take her "slipping and sliding" again, pestering day after day when she'd get home from preschool. I signed her up for group lessons becasue she wasn't a terribly social kid and we thought she'd make friends. No, she took the whole skating thing to the nth degree, to the point people questioned why I was pushing her so hard, and I had to tell them she was the one pushing me, for more ice, more lessons, etc. And this when she was only 8! We never dreamed she'd be skating for 13 years!

[Figureskates]

Since we do not have any kids, it was the niece.

My sister in law came up to visit my wife, her sister, and brought along my then 10 year old niece. I work Saturdays as a rink monitor so they came up to the rink to watch. Well that was all my niece needed. Next thin she wants to go skating with me, then it was on to lessons and as they say, the rest is history.

She has long since passed me in the skill levels but we do skate together still at least once a month. She is currently sidelined with a broken arm but she will be back in no time.